Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The winter is behind us, from across the southern moor that acts a warning for what is likely to befall the unseasoned and weary traveller as they venture into England’s two remote counties of Devon and Cornwall, comes a sound of majesty, of the calling card of the Folk tradition and beauty that regales in tales lost and wars won; all with the testimony of the odd murder here and there which really lights up the room as the clocks steady themselves to bring nature and the wisdom of standing still together in a fashion of tranquillity.
The coming of spring may well attributed to the phantom of humanity’s perception of time, the blossoms on the trees may tell of the hardiness they have endured and now which revel in the fullness of the yearly dance and the cows may stretch out their time grazing on grass and wondering just how they can play tricks on the farmers as they go about their business on that southern moor. Arguably the finest indication that spring has knocked upon the door is when the Folk scene takes itself out of the cosy nest of fireside tunes and comes out with guitars blazing and starts to enthuse the listener to songs that rival any dawn chorus for its beauty.
For Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, it is the call of Liverpool and the road that perhaps make spring, a chance to whisper goodbye to the stuff of winter and bring joy to their fans, to bring peace and incredibly stirring ballads to the ears used to hearing cold rain and the bitterness of chilly post-Christmas blues.
No strangers to the Music Rooms inside the Philharmonic Hall, the duo captivate and hypnotise the crowd with pleasure unbound, a series of songs that get beneath the wildness of the traditional and complexity of considered text across two enormously satisfying sets, and in songs such as Boney’s Defeat, the sensational The Wisdom of Standing Still, The Holdra, The Cows of Mystery, an exquisite version of Bruce Springsteen’s Matamoros Banks Twenty Million Things To Do, The Street Of The Cats Who Dance, A Song To Live By and a stirring reading of Tim Ericson’s The Granite Mill, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman played with the unrelenting passion and sang with the joys of spring gifted to those who seek good company and who can bring hidden emotions out of those who reside in the shadow of winter.
More than welcome always in Liverpool, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman bring spring with them with boundless enthusiasm and passionate displays of the Folk genre.
Ian D. Hall